A team of GCU students placed third in the nation in an academic bowl at the four-day American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Meeting and World Congress, which wrapped up June 2 in Denver.
The team, which included Annika Grams, Payton Price and Isaiah Mews, competed against 12 other ACSM regions in the academic bowl.
“I’m proud of them,” said Dr. Zach Zeigler, GCU associate professor of exercise physiology and nutrition. “What made me even more proud was multiple people came to me afterward and said how polite, kind and respectful our students are.”
Also at the conference, GCU was recognized as a gold status campus — the highest level — in the Exercise is Medicine On Campus program. Exercise is Medicine is a global initiative sponsored by the ACSM that encourages university campuses and their surrounding communities to be active and healthy as a means to reduce dependence on traditional medicines.
The students, along with Zeigler and Dr. Anthony Acevedo, adjunct professor, presented their research at the conference. The peer-reviewed abstracts will be published next month in Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, ACSM’s flagship monthly peer-reviewed journal. They are:
- “Body Composition as a Predictor of Performance on ACFT Total Score of ROTC Cadets,” by Zeigler, Acevedo, Grams, Sara C. Campbell and Bridget Melton of Grand Canyon, Rutgers and Georgia Southern universities.
- “Effects of Wearing an N95 Mask for an Extended Duration on Ambulatory Blood Pressure and Arterial Stiffness,” by Zeigler, Acevedo, Mews, Kaitlyn Wabakken and Abby Koornneef of GCU.
- “Maximal Aerobic Capacity as a Predictor of Performance on the ACFT Total Scores of ROTC Cadets,” by Zeigler, Acevedo, Melton and Campbell of Grand Canyon, Concordia and Rutgers universities.
- “Diet Quality Predicts the Performance of ROTC Cadets on the ACFT Total Score,” by Zeigler, Acevedo, Melton and Campbell of Grand Canyon, Concordia and Rutgers universities.
- “The Impact of Mask-Wearing During High-Intensity Exercise on Post-Exercise Hemodynamics” by Zeigler, Acevedo , Price, Luke Heikka, Malia Nowlen, Ruthie Larson, Sara Burton and Sofia Harman of GCU.
